Mitch turns away from me and faces Samuel. “You killed her, didn’t you?” he says. “Answer me!”
“Yes,” Samuel says.
Mitch sticks his fingers in his hair and pulls, biting his lip as if to hold in some immense anger that would cause him to lash out. “You’ll get what’s coming to you soon enough,” he says. He now looks at Ethan. “And what are you here for, to finish the job?”
“I’ve been looking for Waverly,” he answers.
“Oh, I get it,” he says. “You two are a thing, are you?” He spits on the ground in front of him. “You two have no idea what you were doing. You messed everything up.”
“She was going to kill you,” I say. “She said that she killed the others. Remi, Gabe, Jeremiah…”
“She didn’t kill any of them,” he answers, looking toward Samuel. “She was working both sides. With us and with Shadowface. Your Remi and Gabe are not even in Elkhorn anymore. And I was recently with my father.”
I stare at the floor in disbelief, completely blindsided by the fact that Ashley had been on our side. I wasn’t the one that killed her, but I might as well have been.
“Our goal has only ever been to take down those that want power over others,” Mitch says. “She was dying because of you.”
I don’t have any words. It’s true. Maybe if there had not been fighting and war in the streets, she could have gotten proper medical attention, but as it was, she had been bleeding out and was not long for this world either way.
Like seeing only the corner of a painting, a short glimpse into the future hardly lets you see the whole picture.
“Do you know what it’s like losing the one person that you love?” Mitch asks.
I don’t know if he’s waiting for an answer, but one passes by my lips anyway. “Yes.”
He stares at me, his eyes ablaze with anger, his cheeks wet with tears. “Well,” he says, “maybe it’s time you revisit that feeling.” He looks at Ethan. “You there.”
Ethan looks at him.
“Take a walk on the street at the west side of the building,” Mitch commands. “Make no noise. Just keep walking.”
“No,” I say. My chin and lips tremble. I know what is about to happen now. I understand. I can’t let it happen! I won’t let it happen!
But I’m fixed to my spot. There is nothing I can do because Mitch has a hold of my body. Is there a way for my will to overpower his? Is it possible for me to retake control?
I try, but no matter what I do or think, I can’t move my legs. It’s as if Mitch used his words to strap invisible bindings to me, and I can only go free with his say-so.
Ethan starts to leave the room, and just before he walks through the door, our eyes connect and he smiles at me briefly. He knows this is it. He knows there is no stopping it, and this is his way of telling me that it’s all right.
But it’s not all right. He turns and closes the door behind him. The dread and fear I feel is the worst I can remember.
“Please don’t do this,” I say. The front of my shirt is wet from my streaming tears. The night Ethan and I just spent together was so sweet. I can’t imagine that it was our last one. He has been with me through the hardest part of my life. He’s been my rock.
“I know it has all been a mistake,” I continue. “I know that I shouldn’t have shot Ashley, but I was only doing what I thought was right.”
“That’s the problem isn’t it?” Mitch says, staring out the window. “People are always doing what they think is best. Of course, that’s how all of this started in a way. Shadowface was doing what she thought was best.”
“She?” I say.
Mitch smiles and shakes his head. “My mother. Olivia. I just found out.”
“I can help you,” I plead. “Ethan and I both. We can help you finish this.”
“I have a purpose for you,” Mitch says. “But first, Ethan is going to be out of the picture.”
“Please don’t,” I say.
“Come look out the window,” Mitch says.
My feet move in that direction, even though all I want is to run downstairs and try to stop Ethan from walking away.
Below, Ethan begins his slow pace down the street. This part of the building faces away from the fighting that has been going on in the other part of Elkhorn. That’s why I didn’t recognize it in the vision. I’ve never seen this street before.
Ethan walks confidently, rifle in his hands. He knows what is about to happen, but I don’t think he fears it like I do.
Mitch walks away from the window. I don’t even have to watch him to know that he’s going to pick up the rifle that is next to Ashley’s body. In just a few seconds, he’s going to aim the gun at Ethan and take the shot. When Mitch comes up next to me with the rifle in his hands, everything within me wants to take it from him and beat him with it, and then shoot him until there are no more bullets. How could he be this cruel? I know he’s hurting, but it was a mistake. They shouldn’t have been so secretive.
He stares at me, but I don’t give him the benefit of a glance. Not until he commands it of me.
“Look at me,” he says.
My head turns, and my eyes lock with his.
He takes a deep breath. “Take the gun from me.”
My stomach drops. What is he doing?
I reach out my hands and take the rifle from him.
“Aim the gun at Ethan’s heart,” he says.
It doesn’t matter how I feel on the inside. It doesn’t matter that tears flow from my eyes and my mind is trying to fight every bit of what Mitch orders me to do.
“Please stop this,” I say as I close an eye and line up the sight to the left side of Ethan’s back. “We should use this power to stop Shadowface, not fight each other.”
“Stop talking,” Mitch says.
My mouth closes.
The scene before me is beautiful. Serene even. As I watch Ethan, he walks with determination, but with peace. He moves farther and farther away, the sun shining on his back, the early morning casting long shadows. The new day is dawning, but to me this feels like the end. When I had this vision, the thought never entered my mind that it would be me that carried it out.
My aim is fixed and I have a clear shot. My finger hovers just above the trigger. The voice in my head is screaming, but no one else can hear it.
Mitch takes a deep breath before issuing the command that I’ve dreaded to hear.
“Now,” he says. “Pull the trigger.”
Books by Jason D. Morrow
Prototype D
Prototype D (Free)
Prototype Exodus
The Starborn Uprising
Out Of Darkness (Free)
If It Kills Me
Even In Death
The Marenon Chronicles
The Deliverer (Free)
The Gatekeeper
The Reckoning
Keeper of the Books
(By Asher Elliot—a pen name for Jason D. Morrow)
Keeper of the Books (Free)
The Outlaw’s Quest (Summer 2016
Into The Shadows
The Starborn Ascension: Book Three
By
Jason D. Morrow
Chapter 1 - Mitch
The man’s eyes dart toward the window. It is the second or third time he’s done it. I suppose he’s scared. He has every right to be. To start with, he’s my prisoner and his life is in my hands. But I imagine that in this moment he is more nervous about what is outside rather than in. His fear is born from ignorance because I control what is outside. I control everything around us.
“Why are they not attacking us?” the man asks. “Why are they just standing there?”
I let him ask questions. For the past month, I’ve been telling people to keep quiet as I command them to do as I say. Here, no one can hear us. Nothing can touch me. I don’t have to glance over my shoulder to see if someone is coming up behind me with a gun or knife. I am safe here. So I let the man talk freely, though I won�
��t tolerate too many questions for the sake of my own sanity.
“They stand there because that is what I want them to do,” I say, reaching for the steaming mug sitting on the kitchen table in front of me. I take a sip. The coffee is strong and bitter. I like it.
I take the last swallow and stand from my seat. I walk to the counter and pour myself another mug full. My back is to the man. He would try to kill me in any other circumstance, but I know he can’t. He knows he can’t. I have control of his mind—his actions. He will do nothing without my say-so.
As I take another drink, I think about the first day I gained this power. I can still taste the Starborn blood on my lips. That blood now courses through my veins. It was the best and worst day of my life. I lost my only love, Ashley, but I gained a power that will allow me to finish what was started by my father, Jeremiah.
But I have little desire to finish the mission anymore. Not to help my father, anyway. In fact, if it had not been for Ashely, I would have abandoned the fight long ago. But she died to try and stop Shadowface. I can’t let her sacrifice be in vain.
A month ago, I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish this task. I don’t want to work with my father. He cares for nothing but himself and his mission. He doesn’t want to take out Shadowface for the same reasons I do. He wants the power for himself. He told me as much. And that’s not all he told me. He said that Shadowface is a woman and her name is Olivia, and Olivia is my mother.
I take another swig of the coffee and wince at its bitter heat. The man behind me is getting fidgety. I can hear his leg tapping up and down. I close my eyes slowly and I can feel myself enter his consciousness. I can read his thoughts, feel his emotions. If I wanted, I could ease his nerves; make him actually feel calm. But why would I do that? I want him to fear me. Instead, I silently command him to stop moving his leg. When I open my eyes, the sound has stopped.
A month of practice has allowed my power to evolve. When I started, I had to command someone’s mind verbally. But it’s much more than that now. Now, I don’t have to do anything. I can enter into a person’s mind and simply control his will. With Taylor, I have experimented with controlling him from a distance. It started with a small task that would take him a hundred feet from the shack, and then across the road. I let him go farther and farther until I was controlling him from miles away for long periods of time. I’ve used this power countless times over the past month to get where I am now. I can feel a slight grin form as I think about it, and when I look out the window above the kitchen sink, my grin turns into a full smile.
My face is a foot or so from a greyskin and only a narrow pane of glass separates us. Normally, a greyskin like this would smash through the window and try to grab me, bite me, scratch me—but this one is calm while it still stares at me. It’s black eyes are lifeless, but it sways back and forth as its brain tells the body to keep its balance. Thick, drooling mucus slides down from its eyes, finally slipping into its opened jaw until the mouth becomes so full the mucus starts to drip out the front of its mouth and onto its chest. After a week of being a Starborn, I discovered that my power doesn’t extend to the living only, but to greyskins as well. Though the greyskins are dead, their brains do function to a degree. Some might argue that it is the virus that is actually living, using the body as best it can to prolong its life, and spread to others. In that case, I suppose I am controlling the virus within the person. Either way, the greyskins listen to me. They move when I tell them to move. They attack when I want them to attack.
But controlling the mind of a greyskin is not like controlling the mind of a person that is still alive. It’s much simpler. The commands are straightforward, never complex. I can tell the man sitting at the table to lay down on the floor in exactly five minutes and he will do as I tell him, but such a command cannot be given to a greyskin because it has no concept of time. Really, it has no concept of lying down either. It’s sort of sick, but I have to think like a greyskin when I command it. I can order it to eat, to walk, and to stand still. So far, I have discovered nothing else that works. But I imagine that I need no other commands for a greyskin. And since their minds are so simple, I can command many of them at once.
I am in a small cabin in the middle of a field. The field is perfectly visible to anything or anyone that might pass by on the road not too far from here. I do not fear having a fire. I do not fear making noise. That is because surrounding the house are about a thousand greyskins, walking in circles as if on display. No one in his right mind would try to rob me or kill me with so many greyskins nearby, and when more greyskins come, they tend to do as the herd around them is doing. I can walk out among them right now, and none of them would touch me. They wouldn’t even hiss.
So, yes, the man at the table has every natural right to be scared, but he should fear me far more than the thousand greyskins roaming around the yard.
I bring the mug of coffee with me as I sit at the table across from the man. A drip of sweat falls from his forehead and disappears into his thick, red and white beard even though it is nearly winter and the fire in the wood stove has barely had a chance to warm the room.
“I want to go over everything again,” I tell him. “I have to make sure that I’ve thought of everything. Start at the beginning.”
“My name is Taylor and I’m a guard at Shadowface’s main residence in Anchorage.”
I wave him off. “No, not that beginning,” I say, annoyed. “What is your mission?”
“To help you gain access to Shadowface’s office,” he answers immediately.
“And when does Shadowface plan to reveal her identity to the network?”
“A week from tonight.”
“How do you know this?”
“Samuel said so.”
Every time I hear the name I cringe. Samuel killed Ashley and got away with it. I can’t believe he got away with it. I had him under my control, but I was blind with anger, distracted by my hate. I was too busy making Waverly feel the same pain I felt to pay proper attention to my surroundings.
“So three nights from now, what will you be doing?” I ask.
“Preparing for your arrival,” he says. He looks at me with anger in his eyes. He doesn’t want to be saying this. He doesn’t want to work for me, but he knows he has no other choice.
I close my eyes and this time it’s to access his emotions. I can feel the anger inside him growing with every word that passes by his lips. It’s time to change his way of thinking.
Do not think of me as your enemy. You are doing this for the greater good. What you are doing is noble. You will be rewarded for your actions.
When I open my eyes, I can tell that his face has softened and he no longer looks at me like he wants to cut my head off. Instead, his jaw is set, and he sits a little straighter.
“Who are you going to tell about me?” I ask.
“No one,” he says. “Everything will be like normal. When I arrive, I will tell them that I got separated from the group and have been lost.”
“And you are sure that they will accept you? You will have your normal post back?”
“Yes,” Taylor says. “There would be no reason for them to turn me away.”
His words please me and only make me think of how lucky it was that I came upon Taylor in the first place. The part about him being separated from his group because of me is true.
Ever since that last day in Elkhorn, I have been doing everything I can to track down Shadowface, but I have been smart and methodical. I tracked her to a small town north of where I am now. All I got out of tracking her was a nervous guard, but he is valuable. Since then, I’ve learned a lot more about Shadowface.
I now know that she spends most of her time in the city of Anchorage. I’ve never been there, but apparently she has set up plenty of defenses and remains off the grid, doing much of her work from a massive underground bunker.
I also know that she not only keeps her identity hidden from the rest of her network, but fr
om the guards close to her as well. Not even Taylor who guards her office has ever seen her face. He didn’t even know she was a she. When he first told me that Shadowface was going to reveal her identity, I wanted to know why.
“What’s the point?” I asked him.
“Transparency,” Taylor had told me. “The network is getting bigger every day and people will want to know who is providing for them. They will want to know who Shadowface is.”
He said that all of the leaders of networked towns and settlements had been invited to attend a meeting, and that Shadowface wanted to come out to the people face-to-face, and not over phones or the radio.
“Samuel told us about it because there would be heightened security and he wanted us to prepare for it.”
And now I’m confident that the security won’t be enough to stop me. No one has seen her. No one knows who she is. That has been an advantage for Shadowface, but right now it is an advantage for me. The day of her announcement will be utter chaos, and I can’t wait to see the result.
I finish my second cup of coffee and finish drilling Taylor on everything. I have made sure that he will be doing all that we have planned, and nothing else. There will be no talk or mention of me. There will be no worry. I stare at him and he gives the stare right back, blankly. I feel like I am fully prepared, though I am traveling into uncharted territory, literally and metaphorically. I have had Taylor draw me maps from memory and give me instructions on how to get through the underground of Anchorage without being seen, though, if I’m seen, it would hardly be the end of my mission. I worry about these things because even I sometimes forget about the power that flows through me. Theoretically, I could walk right through the streets of Anchorage, shouting to the top of my lungs that I want Shadowface to die and not a soul would touch me if I didn’t want them to. But that’s not how I want things to play out. It isn’t just about taking her down.
The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga) Page 46